Ash processing and metals recovery systems and methods

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for incineration ash such as ash from municipal waste incineration plants, purification and recovery of materials and metals. Increased levels of aggregate and metals recovery and purification are achieved and production of residual ash with less environmental contaminants.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No.13/481,177, filed May 25, 2012.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure and related inventions is in the general field ofmaterials processing, including byproduct and waste material processing,recycling, refining and reclamation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Municipal waste incineration is well established for waste managementand disposal, and is also capable of providing an energy source.Incineration combustion byproducts, including of non-combustibles suchas glass and concrete, partially burned and unburned materials, andmetals—ferrous and non-ferrous, and ash is presently landfilled. Due tothe high impurity of untreated or minimally process incineration ash,accepting landfills must be environmentally secure. Increasingenvironmental regulations and restriction on landfill material directlyimpact incinerator operations and capacity. With increasing amounts ofwaste incineration byproduct requiring disposal, standards ofperformance for municipal solid waste landfills place furtherrestrictions and requirements on the exact content of such material.

Ash material from waste combustors, or incineration ash, which may alsoinclude municipal or some residual waste systems currently arelandfilled. Some facilities remove ferrous metals from ash utilizingdrum magnets. Fewer facilities also remove non-ferrous metals, but eventhose facilities that do make an attempt to remove ferrous andnon-ferrous do not capture all the metals within the ash. The fine wetash material sticks to the metals, especially small metal pieces, andbinds traditional separation equipment. Additionally, the onlybyproducts produced from the prior processes are only the metals. Theresidual material is landfilled. Impurities in landfilled waste ashmaterial, such as metals and other ferrous and non-ferrous particles,present a problem for compliance with increasingly strict environmentalcontrols on landfill ash. Mass or material balance analysis has notheretofore been applied to management of incineration ash.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Systems and methods for treatment of municipal waste incinerationbyproduct are disclosed which produce high quality aggregate materialsand recovery of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, and ash of higherpurity. The systems and methods of the disclosure deconstructs mixed ashwaste (bottom and fly ash) generated by WTE facilities and generatesclean recycled products while making final waste products for disposalmore environmentally friendly. The systems and methods of the disclosureenhance ferrous and non-ferrous metals recovery (higher grade material),generate clean inert aggregate products for use in asphalt, generate asand product with multiple potential uses, generate an industrial solidfuel source, an generate an easily handled and purified dry ash cake fordisposal. The system screens material by size and then utilizes acombined liquid/screening process to separate recycled product fromwaste ash. Small materials are then separated by density, and theremaining ash is separated from the water via a chemical/physical watertreatment systems so that the water is recycled within the system andthe ash is pressed into dewatered cakes for disposal.

Through mass balance testing, the system and variants have shown to beable to reduce landfill disposal amounts by 50% from prior art systemsand methods, and reductions of up to 70% or higher with the describedrecycling of aggregate products. These disposal reductions result inhuge avoided costs with significant levels of increased revenues fromthe sale of recycled products such as metals and asphalt additives.Testing of incoming ash material and end products produced by the systemand methods of the disclosure as compared to prior art methods hasverified significant and substantial reductions of heavy metals in thedisposal ash. The systems and methods of the disclosure thus reduceprocessor and facility environmental liability and makes the ashmaterial easier to handle at landfill facilities with respect toleachate generation and treatment. Validated mass balance substantiatesthe effectiveness of the disclose systems and methods by the measuredincreased yield of useable byproducts and the reduction in ash volumefor disposal.

The systems and methods of the disclosure are more environmentallybeneficial than the existing practice of direct landfilling. The systemsand methods of the disclosure recovers useable energy and materials fromwaste that is disposed of by existing practices.

In accordance with one aspect of the ash processing and metals recoverysystems and methods of the disclosure, an incineration byproductprocessing system includes a first screen for separation of particleshaving dimensions greater than approximately three inches from theincineration byproduct; a wash plant for accepting ash and particleshaving dimensions less than approximately three inches from theincineration byproduct, the wash plant having a basin containing waterand one or more sand screws and one or more adjustable weir plates; afirst wash plant screen for separating particles having dimensionsgreater than approximately one inch from the incineration byproduct inthe wash plant; a second wash plant screen for separating particleshaving dimensions greater than approximately one-half inch; a third washplant screen for separation of fine particle fraction from theincineration byproduct, and the sand screws operative to transferaggregate sand from the basin of the wash plant.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a first embodiment of an incinerationbyproduct processing and treatment system of the present disclosure, and

FIGS. 2A-2C together form a schematic diagram of an alternate embodimentof an incineration byproduct processing and treatment system of thepresent disclosure, and

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an additional alternate embodiment ofan incineration byproduct processing and treatment system of the presentdisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED AND ALTERNATE EMBODIMENTS

The ash processing systems and methods of the present disclosure, andrelated inventions, utilize separation and washing processes whichcapture a greater percentage of metals, produces higher quality metalswith higher value, and also produces at least two recycled aggregateproducts not produced by any prior system or method. In a firstrepresentative embodiment of a system and related methods of thedisclosure, as illustrated and described with reference to FIG. 1, anincineration byproduct processing system and method processes rawincineration ash A, including by use of a power or shaker screen at 10with a screen size of approximately 3 inches such that large items greatthan 3 inches are separated from the ash. This particle size fraction ofthe waste material is typically large metal pieces and concrete,unburns, etc. The material fraction larger than approximate 3 inchdimension is then separated, manually or automated, at line 12, and anymetals are removed for recycling at lines 14, 16. The material fractionless than 3 inch dimension is discharged from the screen to a conveyorand drops onto a stacker at 20, such as a radial stacker that transfersthe material to a multiple screen wash plant at 30, such as a triplescreen wash plant, that utilizes water from sources 32 and 45 toseparate and wash the incineration byproducts. The ash drops onto thewash plant via a watering box, for example within the wash plant, thatpresoaks the material; and the material then travels over a 1″ screen.The material then is separated from the ash by the first deck intogreater-than 1″ and less-than 1″ fractions. The less-than 1″ fractionfalls onto the second lower screen with a screen size of ½″. Thegreater-than ½″ material is discharged from the wash plant and joins thegreater-than 1″ fraction of mixed metals and aggregate. The less-than ½″fraction falls onto the final screen, such as for example a No. 6 mesh.The greater-than 6 mesh material discharges from the wash plant. Theless-than 6 mesh material drops into the bottom of the wash plant, forexample and is pumped to a thickener 40 for ash separation from the washwater, as further described. A large basin with sand screws isincorporated into the bottom of the wash plant. The basin is filled withwater and has adjustable weir plates to control particulate separation.The heavy fine fraction drops to the bottom of the basin and iscollected by the sand screws and discharges the plant as recycledaggregate course sand, for example to bin 50. The very fine materialpasses over the weir plates and is discharged to the ash collection anddewatering system 60. The particle size passing the weirs can becontrolled by a counter current underflow system. From the wash plant,two products are created as referenced above; aggregate sand at 39 andgreater-than 6 mesh to less-than 3″ mixed recycled aggregate and mixedmetals.

The metals mixed with aggregate are clean and of higher quality andvalue than traditionally separated metals. Additionally, the removal ofthe fines greatly improves the capacity of separation equipment such asdrum magnets and eddy current machines. From the discharge of the washplant at 38, the mixed metals and aggregate are passed over a drummagnet separator 70 to separate ferrous material. From there, theremaining material passes through a high frequency eddy currentseparator 80 to separate out non-ferrous metals. Finally or optionally,the material can be passed through an air knife separation/elutriationsystem to remove remaining unburned material from the final recycledaggregate product. The final aggregate product, which passes toxicitychemical leaching procedure (TCLP) and synthetic particle leachingprocedure (SPLP) testing requirements, is ideal for use as a recycledaggregate for asphalt production. The gradation of the material isweighted to the smaller fraction and contains stones, crushed glass, andceramics.

The final process is to separate the fine ash material from the washwater such that the water can be cleaned and recycled to the head of thewash plant. The system is generally a closed loop that does not requirelarge quantities of fresh water to operate. The ash is separated fromthe water via a clarifier/settler system at thickener 40. Ash ladenwater is treated to adjust pH and then with alum coagulant, followed byaddition of a propriety anionic polymer flocculant which can be fed at42 to the thickener 40. The mixture and quantity of each chemical addedis controlled by injection systems and is dependent on particle size andsolid concentrations. The treated water is then mixed in a flocculanttank to provide good contact of chemical and solids and encouragesflocculent growth. The water is then passed through an inclined platesettler where solids settle to the bottom of the clarifier, and thecleaned water exits the top of the system where it's pumped to the clearwater storage tanks 45 that are the source of water for the wash plant.Water is passed through the wash circuit via various high pressure highflow pumps. The flocin the clarifier is discharged from the settler to asludge tank and then pumped into a dewatering system 60, which mayinclude, for example, plate and frame press; belt filter press;centrifugal dryer; screw press or rotary kiln dryer. The ash floc isdewatered via a belt filter press or screw press to remove as much wateras possible to reduce transportation costs of transporting the ash caketo final disposal 80 and to landfill. The ash cake, which also complieswith TCLP and SPLP requirements, is greatly reduced in mass and volumeas compared to prior systems and methods, and therefore greatly reducesdisposal costs.

In an alternate embodiment of a system and related methods of theinvention, as illustrated with reference to FIGS. 2A-2C, processed ashor incineration byproduct A, for example from a 1000 ton/dayincineration facility is further treated for additional metal recoveryand the generation of a benign residual material (tailings) thatqualifies for open non-hazardous disposal. A combination of washing,screening and drying will prepare a plus 10 mesh (greater than or equalto 1.68 mm) fraction for metal recovery with magnetic and eddy currentseparators. The tails from this first process step will be mainly rocks,glass and ceramics that can be sold for cement aggregate. The minus 10mesh (less than 1.68 mm) will be ground and chemically leached usingammonia or copper thiosulfate lixiviant for copper and silver recovery.

The objective of the process is to generate enhanced metals recoveryfrom ash tailings processed at an incineration facility such as a refuseincineration facility, and to produce purified or cleansed ash forenvironmentally safe disposal. Metals of interest include copper,silver, aluminum, brass and iron. Equally important is to render the ashtailings from secondary treatment benign to allow open disposal of thefinal ash residue for example in a landfill or for use in new orrecycled products such as building products or road construction, and incompliance with established environmental standards such as TCLP andSPLP.

Ash is removed from an incineration facility at the rate of, forexample, 1,000 tons/day and transferred to a 200 tons capacity feed bin100. A trommel screen 105 is used to mix recycled process water and ashto provide ash slurry for wet screening. Wet screening generates adewatered plus 10 mesh oversize product for drying and processing in aseparate circuit 120 for iron, copper, aluminum and brass recovery.Minus 10 mesh slurry is then ground and leached for copper and silverrecovery.

The trommel plus 10 mesh material will be transferred to the feed bin121 of a dryer. Testing has indicated that this stream will amount to10-15 percent of the feed material. Waste heat from the incinerator isused at 125 to dry the material and the dry product is cooled on ascreened belt conveyor 127 to accommodate metal separation inconventional equipment. Magnetic ferrous material is first separated ina two stage separation and cleaning process. The first stage separationis with a belt magnetic separator 128. This machine is similar to aconveyor belt that uses a rare earth magnet for the head pulley.Magnetic material is retained on the head pulley and is discharged to achute below and in back of the head pulley. Non-magnetic material fallsstraight off the end of the belt to a collection belt (not shown) underthe machine. The magnetic portion falls onto a rare earth drum magneticseparator 130. The magnetics adhere to the drum and are discharged to achute that reports to a cross belt that feeds a storage bin 131 for themagnetic product. Non-magnetics from the second stage of cleaning joinsthe non-magnetic fraction from the first stage at 132 and are advancedto the next stage of separation.

The non-magnetics are treated in a high frequency eddy current separator140. This unit appears similar to a belt magnet however the head pulleycontains an internal rare earth magnet rotating at 3,600 rpm. The highvelocity magnetic field at the head pulley induces a current in anyconductive metal above the belt. A resultant force generated in thepiece of metal and the extra force and forward velocity of the belt“throws” the metal piece up and over a splitter at the end of the belt.Non-conductive pieces are not affected and fall straight down off thehead pulley, for example to bin 132. The conductive metal is collectedin a chute that reports to a storage bin 135. The non-conductivefraction of the waste will consist of clean rocks, glass and ceramics.From this point, this material can be used for example to fill belowgrade real estate or as an aggregate for cement manufacture, or othersuitable applications and uses for recycled materials in infrastructureand buildings.

The trommel undersize will report by gravity to the feed chute of aconventional ball mill 150. Grinding will reduce the ash residue to 100%minus 35 mesh (less than 0.420 mm) for leaching. The water used for themilling process will be reclaimed water from the downstream leachingprocess. The ball mill discharge will be collected in a feed surge tankand pumped into subsequent chemical treatment tanks.

Chemical systems are used for copper and silver recovery, such aspressure ammonia leaching, which will recover only copper. In addition,a solution of copper sulfate and sodium thiosulfate, can be used forleaching both copper and silver, such as by the illustrated arrangement160 for pressure ammonia leaching.

Feed from the leach surge tank is pumped into the first leach reactor. Apre-oxidation step may or may not be employed to enhance copperrecovery. Ammonia gas from a storage tank and recovered ammonia gas fromrecycle leach solution is pumped into the first leach vessel. Thepressure may be for example on the order of 100 psi and the leachvessels may be heated with waste heat from the incinerator. Feedcascades by gravity down a three vessel reactor for an overall retentiontime of approximately four hours. Leach slurry from the last reactor inthe train is discharged through a blow-down reducer to atmosphericpressure. The leached slurry is treated for solids/solution separationeither in a counter current decantation wash circuit (CCD) 180 orfiltered directly to separate clean solution for copper recovery. TheCCD circuit with three conventional thickeners 181-183 is depicted.

CCD uses successive stages of washing to generate a copper free residuefor disposal and a clean copper bearing solution for subsequentprocessing. Wash solution for the CCD is provided using recycledcopper-free (barren) solution 140 from the copper recovery stage. Excessammonia is first removed from the recycle barren solution by raising thepH of the solution with lime or caustic and boiling the high pH solutionin a closed vessel heated with waste heat from the incinerator. Lowammonia, copper-free barren solution is fed to the mix tank on the laststage of the CCD circuit and dilutes residue thickened in CCD-2. Thethickened underflow of CCD-181 is filter feed where the residue isfiltered, washed and air blown to make a benign tailing for opendisposal. Wet magnetic separation may or may not be employed on the wetleach residue from the underflow of CCD-181. The overflows from eachstage of the CCD circuit flow by gravity to eventually overflow the lipof CCD-183. This is the feed solution for copper recovery.

Copper recovery is by conventional solvent extraction at 190. Thisprocess contacts the copper bearing solution with an immiscible(non-soluble) organic that contains a liquid ion exchange reagent.Copper is absorbed by the organic phase and hydrogen ions are releasedfrom the organic to the aqueous phase. The unit employed is called amixer settler. Typically, two extraction units 191, 192 are used torecover the copper into the organic stream. The organic stream is thencontacted with strong acid solution at 195 and the copper is transferredto the strong acid. Hydrogen ions from the strong acid transfer into theorganic phase to replace the copper ions transferred to the strong acid.

The strong acid stream is in closed circuit with a copper electrowinningtank house. This process uses direct electrical current in cellsconsisting of anodes and cathodes. Copper is “electro-won” onto thecathodes 198 in the cells and periodically harvested and bundled forshipping to copper end product manufactures; i.e. wire, tubing or brass.

Some of the features and advantages provided by the described systems,methods and processes include, without limitation: capture ofapproximately 4% or more of the in feed as non-ferrous metal (comparedto prior art systems which capture on the order of 1%); capture ofapproximately 15% or more of the in feed as ferrous metal (compared toprior art systems which capture on the order of 12%); production ofnon-hazardous end products, including sand, recycled aggregate and finalash cake which passes TCLP testing; production of ash cake that isdewatered down to a moisture content of less than approximately 20%;production of sand and aggregate that is TCLP and SPLP test compliantfor use in asphalt and other end use products; removal of unburns,batteries and other impurities from aggregate, and substantial chlorinecontent reduction such that total dissolved solids leaching from therecycled products are not an impediment to reuse.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates an alternate embodiment of the systemand method described with reference to FIG. 1, with certain differencesin the material handling and treatment. In the system depicted in FIG.3, the aggregate sand from the wash plant 30 is sent directly to thedisposal bin 90. Remaining material from the wash plant 30 is sent tothe drum magnetic separator 70 and eddy current separator 80, and thento additional aggregate washer 82 and to unburns separation 84, whichmay be an air knife separator or elutriation system. These additionalsteps and components provide further purification and mass reduction ofwaste ash by increased capture of metals and at greater purification. Ofthe recovered metals and aggregate materials. The increased amount ofbyproducts removed from the ash translates directly to reduced ashtonnage to be transported and disposed.

What is claimed is:
 1. Incineration byproduct processing systemcomprising: a first screen for separation of particles having dimensionsgreater than approximately three inches from the incineration byproduct;a wash plant for accepting ash and particles having dimensions less thanapproximately three inches from the incineration byproduct, a basinlocated at a bottom of the wash plant and one or more sand screws in thebasin operative to collect and discharge sand from a bottom of thebasin, and one or more adjustable weir plates in the basin; a watersupply system fluidly connected to the wash plant, the water supplysystem including a water storage tank; first, second and third washplant screens in the wash plant, the first wash plant screen of the washplant configured to separate particles having dimensions greater thanapproximately one inch from the incineration byproduct in the washplant; the second wash plant screen of the wash plant configured toseparate particles having dimensions greater than approximately one-halfinch from the incineration byproduct in the wash plant; the third washplant screen of the wash plant configured to separate fine particlefraction from the incineration byproduct; a discharge from the washplant configured to discharge incineration byproduct particles havingdimensions less than approximate three inches and dimensions greaterthan openings in the third wash plant screen, and a thickener fluidlyconnected to the wash plant to receive byproduct combined with waterfrom the wash plant, the thickener also fluidly connected to a watersupply to receive water containing pH adjustment, coagulant andflocculant for contact with the incineration byproduct in the thickener,the thickener having a discharge for discharging incineration byproductto a dewatering unit.
 2. The incineration byproduct processing system ofclaim 1 further comprising a stacker operative to transfer byproductmaterial from the wash plant.
 3. The incineration byproduct processingsystem of claim 1 further comprising a water supply system fluidlyconnected to the wash plant.
 4. The incineration byproduct processingsystem of claim 3 wherein the water supply system comprises a recycledwater storage tank, a make-up water supply or tank, and a fluidconnection between the thickener and the recycled water storage tank. 5.The incineration byproduct processing system of claim 1 wherein the washplant is configured to discharge incineration byproduct particles havingdimensions less than approximately three inches.
 6. The incinerationbyproduct processing system of claim 5 wherein the incinerationbyproduct particles having dimensions less than approximately threeinches are discharged to a drum magnetic separator.
 7. The incineratorbyproduct processing system of claim 6 further comprising a ferrousbyproduct collection bin configured to receive ferrous material from thewash plant and from the drum magnetic separator.
 8. The incinerationbyproduct processing system of claim 5 wherein the incinerationbyproduct particles having dimensions less than approximately threeinches are discharged to an eddy current separator.
 9. The incineratorbyproduct processing system of claim 8 further comprising an aggregatecollection bin configured to receive sand byproduct from the wash plantand to receive non-conductive material from the eddy current separator.10. The incinerator byproduct processing system of claim 8 furthercomprising a non-ferrous metals collection bin configured to receivenon-ferrous metals from the wash plant and from the eddy currentseparator.
 11. The incineration byproduct processing system of claim 1further comprising an air knife separation/elutriation system operativeto remove unburned material from the byproduct.
 12. The incinerationbyproduct processing system of claim 1 wherein the wash plant furthercomprises a watering box.
 13. An incineration byproduct processingsystem comprising: a first screen for separation of particles havingdimensions greater than approximately three inches from the incinerationbyproduct; a wash plant for receiving incineration byproduct includingparticles having dimensions less than approximately three inches thewash plant having first second and third wash plant screens located inthe wash plant, the first wash plant screen having openings dimensionedto separate particles from the incineration byproduct having dimensionsgreater than approximately one inch; the second wash plant screen havingopenings dimensioned to separate particles from the incinerationbyproduct having dimensions greater than approximately one-half inch;the third wash plant screen having openings dimensioned to separate fineparticle fraction from the incineration byproduct; a wash plantdischarge for discharge of incineration byproduct particles havingdimensions less than approximate three inches and dimensions greaterthan openings in the third wash plant screen, and a thickener fluidlyconnected to the wash plant discharge to receive incineration byproductcombined with water from the wash plant, the thickener fluidly connectedto a water supply to receive water containing pH adjustment, coagulantand flocculant for contact with the incineration byproduct in thethickener, the thickener having a discharge for discharge ofincineration byvroduct to a dewatering unit.